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Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV29

Introduction

Cantata 29 (‘Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir’, from August 1731) opened with a delightful little movement for organ and festive orchestra which the composer had most ingeniously adapted from the violin solo prelude to the third unaccompanied Partita in E major, BWV1006—a certain Cöthen original, and arranged here in notation one tone lower.

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The Sinfonia in D major comes from the Ratswahl­kantate, BWV29 (‘Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir’ / ‘We thank you, God, we thank you’) – a work written by Bach in 1731 for the election of Leipzig city council. The original is a brilliant movement for organ solo and orchestra (complete with trumpets and drums), which is Bach’s own reworking of the first movement of the Partita in E major for unaccompanied violin, BWV1006. It was after Kempff had played the original obbligato organ part on the piano at a concert in Berlin conducted by another famous Bach pianist, Edwin Fischer, that he decided to replicate the sound of the orchestra in his own transcription for piano. This it certainly does! Kempff marked it ‘Allegro pomposo’, and inserted the word ‘glorioso’ at the first big build-up before the long decrescendo. It remained one of his favourite encores throughout his career.

Finally, we hear one of Marcel Dupré’s transcriptions of movements from Bach’s cantatas. Cantata 29 (‘Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir’) was first performed in 1731 at the inaugural ceremony of the Leipzig town council. The brilliant opening Sinfonia is scored for organ obbligato, three trumpets, timpani, strings and continuo, although the work is perhaps better known in its original version as the Preludio of the Partita for solo violin in E major, BWV1006. Dupré’s transcription for solo organ perfectly captures the music’s festivity and dignity, and of course it uses all the potential for colour and drama of a large symphonic instrument. It seems exactly the right note on which to bring this celebration of the feast of St Peter, ‘Prince of the Apostles’, and patron of a great church, to a fitting close.